Southeast Asian payments services company 2C2P has announced 320,000 offline payment locations for its 123 service.

This is an alternative payment service that allows consumers across Southeast Asia to pay for online purchases with cash or alternate means at an offline payment location.

Merchant partners include retailers spanning the travel and tourism, retail, F&B and hospitality industries. These online retailers can offer reach the region’s unbanked population which, according to KPMG, spans 73 per cent of the region’s population, or 438 million people.

When reaching an online check-out, consumers using 2C2P will have the option to pay via 123. They will be given a barcode that enables them to pay with cash or some other means at 2C2P’s network of offline payment locations.

Payment channels include cash over-the-counter at retail chains and agents, ATMs and electronic kiosks (such as AXS, Sam and SingPost), as well as internet banking and mobile banking. These locations are available across Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

The company claims to have increased its payment locations across the region with 12,000 locations added in Myanmar this year. It has achieved this by establishing partnerships with the ABC convenience store chain, Myanmar Awba Group and Myanmar post offices. Retailers and merchants in the scheme include Myanmar National Airlines (MNA) and Oway, Myanmar’s largest online travel agent.

2C2P CEO/founder Aung Kyaw Moe says the company has made extensive efforts to open up Myanmar’s unbanked population to eCommerce. “Our vision is to bring eCommerce to every single person in Myanmar and, more broadly, in Southeast Asia.”

Aung says many Myanmar citizens are underserved by banking and financial institutions – they do not have bank accounts, credit and debit cards, or access to a bank branch.